Two Weeks on the Trail

Campaign Updates!

This past weekend, I hit 130 signatures! I was nervous going into it but once you’ve spent months unionizing your work place, asking people to support a nomination isn’t so hard. I plan on overshooting the 150 mark that is needed so I can return my nomination papers with confidence in securing my name on the ballot!

I’m hoping to turn this momentum into a campaign that is capable of instilling confidence in our community members who have long felt jaded towards the possibility of meaningful change. In a small city like Lowell, every vote truly counts. Our current council representative won by 400 votes with about 800 votes total meaning this race is entirely winnable. A bolder, refreshing, and more hopeful vision for Lowell is capable of winning.

On the Need for a Bold Vision

Second, I want to bring to your attention the recent passing of the 2026 state budget which our state rep, Tara Hong, has posted a short yet great summary of on his Instagram here.

Put simply, the state of Massachusetts wants cities like ours to improve our livelihoods. We are being encouraged to build more homes, to expand our bussing system, to make walking and biking more feasible, and the state and international organizations want to give us money to do this! We need to take it and a city council body which rejects a more beautiful and thriving Lowell is a city council misaligned with the people.

Furthermore, as our national body politic becomes more reactionary and persistent in destroying our already weakening education, healthcare, and transit systems, we as a community of working class residents, immigrants, refugees, and compassionate peoples - the legendary melting pot spoken of in that one SchoolHouse Rock episode - must now more than ever double down on our efforts to build a city which invests and protects those things which have and will continue to make this city great. 

These are the reasons I am running and I hope to share that vision with you along the trail.

And to the old political class, which shackles cities everywhere, a quote from the legendary author James Baldwin:

“I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.”

Neighbor and Believer-in-a-better-world,

Marcos Antonio Candido Jr.